Yaupon should probably be more popular than it actually is.

Hollies are innately uncommon in contemporary landscapes. Yaupon (holly), Ilex vomitoria, happens to be one of the least common. Ironically, because of its small leaves and dense growth, it is more tolerant to frequent shearing by maintenance gardeners who ruin other hollies. It can actually make a nice shorn hedge.
Hedged yaupon can eventually get up to the eaves of a single story. Unshorn plants can reach the eaves of a second story, and might display showy red berries about an eighth of an inch wide. The small and often randomly serrate leaves are only about half to an inch long, and maybe half an inch wide.

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, Gardening Examiner

Horticulturist, arborist and garden columnist, Tony Tomeo has always enjoyed gardening, and spent his childhood growing fruits and vegetables, and propagating perennials. After attaining his BS in horticulture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he grew horticultural crops through the 1990s, from...

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